A day after Bal Thackeray's cremation, Shaheen had posted on her status the comment, "People like Thackeray are born and die daily and one should not observe a bandh for that." Her friend Renu had liked the post.

Subsequently, Shaheen's uncle's clinic was vandalised by some people who were alleged to be Shiv Sainiks and the two women were arrested under section 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) as well as Section 66A of the IT Act.

Later in the day, Twitter was abuzz with vehement decrying of Section 66A with the tag #66Amustgo.

Another user, Prakash Sharma wrote, "The IT laws are stupid and go against the spirit of our Constitution that assures us free speech."

Rakesh K Singh tweeted: "Shame on Kapil Sibbal for including it in IT act. Shame on all Parliamentarians who let it pass without debate."

Another user, Jules Derek, tweeted, "Taliban shot a girl for speaking against them. Police intimidated a girl here. We slowly going the Taliban way??" Derek also went on to ask, "Why was Vadra not arrested for insulting my country on FB by calling it a Banana Republic? He hurt patriots sentiments!"

Here, Derek referred to the 14-year-old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousufzai, who was seriously injured when a suspected militant attacked her car in the country's restive northwest last month. Yousufzai received several threats after she began writing about the excesses of the Taliban in a blog.